Broken Warrior (The Weavers Circle 1)

Images of Clay in his sweat pants and bare chest that morning danced through his brain, and he hit the next cabinet harder than he’d planned.

Man, the guy was ripped, with wide muscles and a faint sprinkling of dark hair on his chest. Tattoos covered one shoulder and part of his arm. Dane had wanted to touch him, and when he’d seen the similar response in Clay’s eyes, it had been all he could do not to climb off his ladder and climb the man himself.

He’d spent the last two years with his libido dead and buried along with his wife, and here came this man who brought it back to vibrant life.

It was insane. He never wanted to give his heart to another person and lose them.

Even now, the memory of Katie and his son Caleb was enough to send him to his knees. The room suddenly swirled around him. He closed his eyes and slowly counted, bringing his breathing under control.

For the first year after their deaths, panic attacks had filled his days. They threatened to reappear, but the breathing and counting usually worked to stop them. He focused on the sledgehammer in his hands, at its weight and the solid wood handle in his palms. Grounding himself in reality—it helped.

“Dane!”

That voice brought an instant grimace. Greg, his wife’s brother, had been a pain in his ass for as long as he’d known the man. It hadn’t gotten any better with her death.

Greg was ten years older than Katie and had been furious when they married so young. He never welcomed Dane as a part of the family.

Dane had a pretty good idea why he was there now.

He brushed the dust off his hands and walked to the front door.

Greg stood on the porch, his massive body taut with anger, hands already in fists. “Mom said you refused to give up your share of the family cabin.”

Dane sighed. Yeah, he’d talked to Katie’s mother the night before. That phone call had…hurt. His mother-in-law had gotten shrill in the end, speaking to him as if he hadn’t known her for more than a decade.

The cabin was located on a lake up in North Carolina, deep in the woods and tucked away from the rest of the world. A perfect escape. A hideaway. It was where Katie’s family had taken all their vacations, where she and Dane had first kissed.

Katie’s family each had a share in the place, all gave a chunk of money each year to see to its upkeep. And if it was rented out, each person got a share of the income. When Katie died, Dane naturally inherited her share.

But now that Katie was gone, the family wanted to sell the place and bury the last of their memories of Katie.

Greg took a step closer, his hot breath spilling over Dane’s face. It reeked of sour beer despite the early hour of the day. “You have no business owning even part of that cabin. If the family wants to sell it, it’s our business.”

“That’s just it. It is my business. She left her share of the cabin to me. I’m afraid you’re all making a rash decision. You’ll want to return when Katie’s memories aren’t so fresh and painful.”

“Like you plan to? Really? You’re saying the memories aren’t fresh for you?”

Anger thrummed through Dane’s veins. “Of course they are! How dare you imply they aren’t! A day doesn’t go by where I don’t miss her and Caleb.”

“None of us would be missing her and that boy if it wasn’t for you! It’s your fault they’re dead!”

Each shouted word from Greg was like a knife slicing open old wounds that had yet to heal.

“You don’t think I know that?” Dane shoved out the screen door and stepped onto the porch. “That maybe if I’d been there, I could have stopped the men who broke into our home?”

Hell, sometimes that was all he thought about. If he hadn’t been working yet another late night in the office, he would have been home with his wife and son. Maybe there wouldn’t have been a break-in at all. Maybe he could have stopped them if there was.

“You should have been there, you son of a bitch!” Spittle flew from Greg’s mouth as he grabbed the front of Dane’s shirt in his fist. “You stupid motherfucker! You only cared about your stupid work. Katie complained all the time about how often you were late. She cried about it.”

Dane’s heart shattered. He’d been in insurance, climbing the corporate ladder, the goal of earning enough to take care of his family in comfort always out of reach.

But he’d worked too much, been away from his wife and baby son too much.

“I’ve got so many regrets, Greg. That’s pretty much all I have now. I will never, ever, get over losing my family, and it was my family. My wife and my tiny son and nothing will ever be right in this world again.”